-LRB- CNN -RRB- I ca n't remember exactly when my teenage fascination with computers collided with the federal government , but I will never forget the morning in 1983 when two FBI agents showed up on my parents ' doorstep .

I had gone to bed around 4 or 5 a.m. after spending hours on my computer , which was pretty common for me back then , at age 18 .

A few hours later , my mom woke me up telling me there were a couple of men here to see me and that they said something about it being official or federal business . I had a slight fear this day would come , because only a couple of days earlier , I had a strange call from a friend asking me what I would do if we were visited by the police or some type of investigation team .

Two men sitting at my kitchen table pulled out badges and stated they were with the FBI . They said they needed to talk to me .

Let me start with a little history : I got my first taste of computers in the mid-1970s in junior high school . We had a teletype terminal that had been brought to our school with an acoustic modem attached . We were shown how it worked and some of us had a chance to do some math testing .

I did not get to use it the first time , but I stayed after school that evening to see if I could get a chance to try it out . The teacher dialed into the central office computer , logged in and started the math program .

I felt like a new world opened for me . For the first time in my life , I saw something that made me imagine what I wanted to do when I grew up .

That junior high school computer math program lead me to computer classes in high school . There , I learned of an Explorer Scout group sponsored by IBM .

For the next couple of years I built a friendship with a group of people who had interests similar to mine -- some closer than others . We would play with computers at school , in Explorer Scouts , in stores like Radio Shack and at home .

Finally in 1982 , I bought my first computer . Some of my friends already had computers and now my time came and I finally got my own . I purchased a Heathkit H-89 , which we built in a friend 's basement . At the same time I also bought a Hayes 309 baud Smartmodem .

I used my computer and modem to log onto electronic bulletin board systems , or BBS , and create more friendships and acquaintances . We were a curious group and we were eager to learn more and more about the different computers made and how they worked .

We ended up getting into about a dozen computer systems -- from the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York to a major international bank system in Los Angeles to the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico , one of only two U.S. laboratories dedicated to nuclear weapons research .

We were really just looking around and playing games on these systems ; we did n't want to harm anything . This was pretty easy because computers back then were built with a basic set of login information , all of it written in the manuals . We did n't see any harm in it .

We would share information with each other about any particularly interesting system we connected to and , when we got together for Explorers , we 'd talk about exploring , not harming systems .

At some point , we started calling our group the `` 4-1-4s , '' a name we came up with after hanging out at a local park . We noticed etchings on the tables with numbers like 1-9 and 2-7 , gang signatures that came from the streets where they operated . Since we all lived in the Milwaukee area , we more or less jokingly gave ourselves the gang name of 414s for the Milwaukee area code .

As the months went on , we started to notice issues staying connected with our modems for any length of time .

Then , the FBI showed up at my home .

Remember , back then home computers were very new , so there were no computer hacking laws . After about a year of back and forth with the FBI , three of us were eventually charged under a federal provision against harassing phone calls , which carried a maximum of six months in prison and a $ 500 fine each .

As I sat before the judge with my lawyer , he asked why he should not give me prison time . I had recently met the love of my life and we were expecting our first child . So I explained that I would like to be around to see the birth of my baby and live a happy and normal family life .

The judge agreed to a plea deal with a stipulation that I could not own a modem during the time I remained on probation . Under the deal , we were charged with misdemeanors that carried two years ' probation and a $ 500 fine . Our records would be expunged under the federal youth corrections act .

Today , more than 30 years later , I 'm still fascinated by computers : I 'm employed as a network engineer and , at home , I tinker around on about half a dozen computers . Oh , and I 'm still married to the love of my life .

The things that we did set the stage for more than just our personal career paths : We helped create several federal laws that are still on the books for computer crime and password safety . It makes me proud as a network engineer working partially in security knowing that , in a way , what we did as a group made for safer computing today . There are still lots of issues with people using simple passwords , companies leaving too many doors open and just the massive amounts of computing power available to work on decoding and breaking into systems .

We could have caused some damage to these companies and many were surprised that we just looked around and played games . Today , hacking is a whole different world .

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As a teen , Timothy Winslow fell in love with exploring computer systems around the nation

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When the FBI showed up , that exploration caused some trouble